JACKSON — The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce (MDAC) introduced the Pesticide Products Registration Online System in 2011 to overwhelming support from businesses nationwide, according to MDAC. In its first year of operation as a pilot system, over 80 percent of businesses took advantage of the online application as a way to register pesticides […] [...]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) are encouraging U.S. trade representative Ron Kirk to challenge new duties proposed by Mexico on imported U.S. poultry. Cochran and Wicker are among 16 Senators who last week sent a letter to Kirk that states the lawmakers’ concern with antidumping charges levied by Mexico […] [...]

ACROSS MISSISSIPPI — An early strawberry season delights consumers, but growers must keep an eye on this spring’s fickle weather to protect their delicate and valuable crop. “The strawberry crop has come into production two weeks earlier than normal,” said Wayne Porter, a Mississippi State University Extension Service agent in Lauderdale County who specializes in […] [...]

CHURCH HILL — Research scientists at Alcorn State University Swine Development Center in Church Hill recently reported that adding purslane leaves to swine diets lowers bad cholesterol while increasing the good cholesterol in growing pigs. “The data generated showed that back fat measurements taken from pigs given a purslane diet plus added cholesterol had 50 […] [...]

ACROSS MISSISSIPPI — Farmers in Mississippi, where an Oklahoma peanut processor proposes to set up two buying and drying warehouses in time for this year’s crop, plan to triple their peanut acreage, the National Agricultural Statistics Service says. It’s the largest planned percentage increase of any state, but still, well, peanuts compared to the 570,000 […] [...]

JACKSON — Gov. Phil Bryant said he doesn’t understand some of the opposition that’s developed to an immigration-enforcement bill, particularly from businesses that say they don’t hire illegal immigrants, anyway. “If they’re not hiring illegal immigrants I am baffled as to why they think this law would be detrimental to their work,” Bryant told reporters […] [...]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) are supporting legislation to stop a proposed new federal rule restricting youth employment on farms and ranches. The senators are original cosponsors on the Preserving America’s Family Farm Act (S.2221), which was introduced last week by Senators John Thune (R-S.D.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and […] [...]

JACKSON — Building contractors and agriculture groups, including those representing the poultry industry and sweet-potato growers, say they’re against an immigration-enforcement bill awaiting debate in Mississippi. Their opposition indicates growing political difficulties for a bill supported by first-term Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who won office last November with the help of tea party groups and […] [...]

WASHINGTON — With the process to draft a 2012 Farm Bill accelerating, U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) said the wide range of views offered by agriculture producers are necessary for developing a successful 2012 Farm Bill. The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry conducted a hearing on some of the more complex aspects of […] [...]

ABERDEEN — Advocates for agriculture met recently at the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Verona to identify priorities for research and Extension Service education programs at Mississippi State University. Scientists from the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, specialists with the MSU Extension Service and almost 250 members of the North Mississippi Producer […] [...]